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THE IRISH NURSES and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for an emergency national plan to deal with overcrowding in hospitals, after 761 patients were counted on trolleys awaiting hospital beds this morning.
Of the 761 patients, 528 people were in emergency departments.
University Hospital Limerick reported the highest number of patients on trolleys, with 122 people awaiting hospital beds there.
Sligo University Hospital and Cork University Hospital both also recorded high numbers awaiting hospital beds, with 55 and 53 patients respectively.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals are now “working in unenviable circumstances in hospitals and community settings”, as they deal with chronic overcrowding in the middle of a widespread respiratory illness outbreak, while national weather warnings are in place.
There were 1,017 people in hospital with the flu as of 31 December according to the HSE, with GP out-of-hours services, GP surgeries, ambulance services, hospital emergency departments and inpatient services “all feeling the effects of respiratory illnesses, primarily influenza”.
The INMO’s Ní Sheaghdha said: “It is inconceivable that we are once again talking about how high trolley figures are on the first Monday in January”.
“This level of overcrowding when dealing with the level of flu and RSV that we have seen over the festive season was entirely predictable but there has been no plan in place by the HSE and individual health regions to stem the worst of it,” she said.
“Our members want to be able to provide safe care to patients but also be assured that their own health and wellbeing is being protected – neither are guaranteed when they are working in overcrowded conditions where respiratory infections are rife.”
The INMO called for an emergency national plan to tackle what it described as the “escalating overcrowding problem in part of the country”, adding that healthcare staff were being left to deal with “entirely predictable annual problems with no new solutions from their employer yet again”.
“The number of patients on trolleys today exceed the inpatient capacity of each large hospital across the country. For example, the number of patients on trolleys exceed the number of inpatient beds in University Hospital Waterford and Letterkenny University Hospital combined,” Ní Sheaghdha said.
She added that the continued delay in developing three elective-only hospitals, as per the HSE and Department of Health’s Sláintecare plan, is adding to the problem.
“The HSE and other public sector healthcare employers must reassure nurses, midwives, healthcare workers, and the wider public that extraordinary measures are being taken to address and remove all barriers to delivering safe care during this critical time,” Ní Sheaghdha said.
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There are too many people attending emergency department’s with minor ailments because they can’t get a GP appointment. A few weeks ago I brought an elderly relative to my local ED with serious cardiac issues and the ED was full of people with minor problems which would normally be sorted by a nurse.
One woman with an ankle injury was accompanied by two adult daughters and
Six children they occupied nine seats in total in the ED – The HSE should strictly enforced only one person to assist a patient policy and this would probably reduce the numbers in all EDs by fifty percent, and the government should increase the number of minor injury clinics for people unable to get a GP appointment
@Chaotic State: some people are just chancers, I brought my child to A & E with a broken ankle and there was a women with a child who’d been hit in the chin with a ball in the school playground…my first thought was a claim.
@Chaotic State: Don’t forget ” bed blockers” where the patient can be discharged but has no place to go…..
@Chaotic State: You must understand that in certain cultures, it is customary for at least three generations + all the cousins to crowd into the ED and provide noisy support.
@Thomas Sheridan: And then visit them enmasse if they are admitted…
@Chaotic State: The rank hypocrisy is outstanding. Tell me, why is Sláinte Care not being fully implemented? There’s your source for under performing hospitals, filled to the gills with management and yet won’t hire more front-line staff and yet it’s those attacking ordinary people who voted back in the same circus. No-one better than the Irish to do hypocrisy.
A good start would be for the unions to stop insisting that out dated work practices are kept, and instead accept the need for 24 x 7 medicine
@Johnny Wilson: workplace change requires workplace consultation and agreement. Those who don’t agree with same would have workers and workplaces back in the dark ages in a flash along with all associated pay and conditions. Great on paper but sack cloth and ashes for the working classes.!
@Johnny Wilson: Be nice if the HSE chief exec did their job and actually made a statement or at least pretend they are capable of doing their job along with the management. They are all being well paid for it so maybe we should take a top down approach for a change
@Johnny Wilson: I don’t think that’s the cause of the entire issue though, A&E used for minor issues, bed blockers, underfunding of regional health, vested interests on every level, bad management at every level…..its a mess.
@Hulio H: well said
@Johnny Wilson: maybe you haven’t noticed, but nurses work shifts to provide 24×7 cover.
@Dave G Doe: unions represent employees. In the public services you don’t have a legal entitlement to negotiate your own salary. That’s why unions exist. If we had a situation where nurses could negotiate their own salaries I’d say total pay costs would increase. The INMO has let nursing salaries fall behind gardai and teachers. Gardai and teachers have an irish language requirement so the government can’t bring people from other countries the way nursing employers can. Recent national pay agreements have shifted tonansectoral approach, which is code for forget relativities. So nirses have lost out. Our best nurses are leaving in droves… to other countries and other professions like pharmaceutical sales.
@Dave G Doe: Dublin hospitals and community care teams are on their knees. A nurse in Dublin is paid the same as the nurse jn Leitrim but housing costs are more than double. Yet the INMO cooperates with a government which wants to keep salaries low. Back to your comment… which particular outdated work practices are you talking about?
There’s a Government sticking point on formation talks, oh wait I forgot Mehole created the HSE and Simple Simon was a Minister for Health and both failed miserably at their jobs in Health. Meanwhile FF and FG think it’s a great idea to downgrade hospitals and move them into cities like Limerick while Ennis and Nenagh remain closed when countless lives have been lost travelling into Limerick in an Ambulance because the local Hospital was not allowed to provide for you.
@Tommy: Ennis and Nenagh A & E were closed by the Bertie Kissers
@David Murray: The A&E’s were replaced with medical assessment units, which could cover most of the people queuing in Limerick. You do need a GP referal letter, so that could be the issue but people living rurally are going to find it harder and harder to get a local GP as they don’t want to replace the retiring ones.
Very nasty flu going around. I’m two weeks in and still haven’t shifted it. Don’t remember my chest ever been so wheezy.
@Ben F: I’m actually the figures aren’t worse given that the flu is rampant this year.
@Paul O’Mahoney: *actually surprised
@Ben F: you’re just soft
@Ben F: same as myself mate can’t shake it, ten times worse than I felt when I had covid and we were locked down because of that sh!te
We need a €9 meal implemented immediately before it’s to late.
@Gavin Smartr: and an emergency shit jokes mandate.
@Setanta O’Toole: we need to build a wall
The government were able to roll out a plan rapidly to manage a whole nation with emergency temporary hospitals set up on standby when Covid happened. This situation should be a dawdle to them and should be resolved within a few days in comparison.
Has anyone seen the 400k a year hse chief exec lately. I know some on here hateeeeeeee to call out the inept management of the 24 billion health budget and instead blame unions, but some leadership in a crisis is part of the contract these overpaid turkeys are getting at the top. HSE tried to pretend during covid that more money would help make things better going forward, and instead things have gotten worse. At this stage its probably quicker and safer going to your local vet then a hospital
@Patrick Newell: Then there’s people who think it would be a good idea to let the government build social housing, even though they built a hospital €1,600,000,000 over budget. They can’t even build a bike shed without corruption.
@Patrick Newell: what about all the clinical directors in the hospitals , they are all medics and only able to sort out their privates down the road but still take the 60k plus for doing it.
How many consultants do you know that are manageable?
We need a national plan? Firstly, set up,an all party committee to look into it. Secondly, set up a citizens assembly to talk it to death. Thirdly, hold a referendum based on the first two. Fourthly, ignore referendum results. Finally, call a general election and promise to do the same all over again…..
@Harry Callahan: Unfortunately that’s the way things are done here, it’s a small country surely some kind of triage could be implemented whereby you attend a regional hospital or even a private clinic and if a person is very ill or need further treatment they are sent to the appropriate major hospital….by air in an emergency and ambulance if that’s appropriate.
@Paul O’Mahoney: There was a study done last year (I think) that showed that if people went to the Medical Assessment Units in Nenagh and Ennis rather than Limerick, there would have been no one waiting on trolleys etc. People think they won’t get as good a treatment in these units though so everyone crowds into LImerick and then gives out that they’re waiting hours/days.
@The next small thing: Oh I didn’t know they looked at it, well we have a tendency to want a hospital in every parish and visiting patients is apparently very important too. God can/will we ever move on ?
The planes are filled with nurses heading to Australia, Canada and other places where they get decent pay and conditions. Our nurses are highly regarded abroad and they always seem to be glad they left Ireland.
@Tom Murphy: that is trur but we also have a very heavily subsided 3rd level education system. If tou were to study /train to be a nurse in Canda or Australia it would cost you a lot more thwn it does here i ireland on course fees
The government running a healthcare system. A joke. They are the problem
Use the Army hospitals.
The numpty got the sack at the election, but unfortunately lot’s of them are still there
As someone that is a primary care patient Shit I know but I was concerned how in the 22 century does one department in a hospital not know what another department is doing. Keep voting for the fft entitled wasters and I had to have 24 bars but in my bowl and they didn’t even know I was under the care off the hearth specifically in the same hospital
@Robert Halvey: This is another problem that I witnessed. Add that I was treated in 4 hospitals, and each hospital assigned me a hospital number, so even though I’m one person but the HSE reported 4… It’s a mess.
Same thing every year. It’s almost like the ministers for health we’ve had are incompetent…..
@Keego: It’s not a unique thing, there are as many waiting for a bed in Northern Ireland, bbc 20mins ago, and the UK is at crisis point leading to a new app being rolled out today and another pledge from Labour.
It all cases bed blockers seems to be an issue with NI saying 500 patients in hospital now don’t need to be but they have no where to go.
Is it still the policy of Irish nurses & midwifes organisation NOT to transfer patients from trolleys in A & E to a ward? This inevitably leads to higher than necessary trolley numbers & this situation was referred to recently in an inquiry into a situation @ University Hospital Limerick
The same problem occurs every January.
The Hospital’s are understaffed over the Christmas and the Consultant’s are on leave hence the backlog come January.
It’s been the same every year since God knows when.
Damn it!
where’s Stephen Donnelly when we need him.
How many nurses called in sick ? 762?
Here’s a question Phil, given the exposure of vulnerable and immunocompromised patients have to medical staff, what proportion of your membership did that one free thing to protect these patients? In other words what percentage got vaccinated against contracting the flu and transmitting it to patients and/or being off sick at a critical time?
For reference it rarely gets above a third – showing scant regard for patients despite hand-wringing criticisms of others above.
In other places it’s actually a condition of employment but what is the official INMO position on members being vaccinated to protect patients from flu and maybe COVID too?
But late calling for a national emergency plan, when you are in the middle if the said emergency. Not like the surge werent foreseeable. INMO have beebbleading nurses up the garden path for yrs – keep paying your dues to hear the same crap year after year.
The HSE has gone past the point of no return. We have doubled its taxpayer funding since 2015, yet the outcomes, waiting times, supply of beds and quality of care have continued to decline. We need to fully privatise the HSE and abolish all healthcare unions. We need to end the model of paying through our taxes into a healthcare funding pool. Instead, we need to allow people to directly pay doctors and hospitals for their services, allowing them to compete with each other for consumers and would offer a menu-style list of different costs for different packages depending on your level of income. Hospitals would then be the sole party responsible for managing their patients, not the HSE, and if they don’t do a good job, they will lose customers just like any business would.
@Frank O’Hara: Wow, so let’s adopt the US model, what has happened to people in this country.
@Eddie Garvey: Give me the American healthcare system over the HSE any day of the week Eddie. They have the shortest waiting time for surgeries, highest rate of cancer survival, highest number of successful organ transplants and the shortest waiting time for specialist care. America also invests the most amount of money in healthcare research and development and as a result, the highest number of medical patents are filed in America. Unlike bureaucracies like the HSE and the NHS which can’t afford to purchase the latest medical technology and pharmaceutical drugs when they come onto the market due to the administrative costs that plague government-run healthcare systems, America can afford these life-saving purchases immediately the minute they come onto the market.
@Frank O’Hara: USA healthcare and healthcare system is ranked 69th in the world, great system if your rich, terrible if your at all interested in a descent society. Sweden, Norway, Iceland, France even Ireland ranked above it, in fact it’s a system set up for affluent people, personally id rather have a system that serves everyone, money might make some people feel superior to others but personally I think everyone’s health should be valued.
Use the VHi beds?
@Thesaltyurchin: Yes and even for a triage…..whatever about the state of our public system, it’s still way better than the private system for serious illnesses like cancer, stroke, heart disease, etc .
My experience anyway.
@Paul O’Mahoney: I was treated privately and in the public system I think private was miles ahead
@John Reynolds: Well my cancer was misdiagnosed twice in the private and was treated as a private patient in Tallaght, St James, St Lukes and Naas and then 2007 to 2013 they were far superior. Hopefully things improved since then.
@Paul O’Mahoney: Very hard to get seen in a timely mqnner in the privates nowadays. Supposed to be seen within 6wks under cancer strategy- over three months waiting to see a consultant if you are lucky. Some consultants in privates not even accepting new patients which means no consultant apts for certain specialities in certain private hospitals & then they wonder why patients are being forced to present at ED. Govt along with HSE & NTPF have managed to totally screw up the public & private health system.
@A M: I didn’t know that, and of course, it’s unacceptable. I’m going to send an email to someone who might be able to raise this would you have a link or is this your personal experience……if personal I wish you all the best…..can’t believe 3 months waiting we have achieved so much with better survival rates and top class oncologists . I know I’m biased as they saved my life but I can’t stay silent on this
Regards
@Paul O’Mahoney: It’s personnel experience. I am an ex HCW & it’s very frustrating beyond belief trying to navigate the system to just get access & to get a biopsy. System completely disjointed. I told the Irish Cancer Society who have escalated. Shortage of Endocrinologists a big issue.
@Paul O’Mahoney: And we own it.
@A M: I’m not a fan of the ICS as they are now consumed politically and policy wise with the status quo. And I told them that ……I’ll still try and get someone who will be close to a minister to give it a bump as this is not acceptable.
If the government implemented following last year, there would be fewer people with illnesses and viruses and a lot less attending GPs and emergency departments throughout the country.
How many people have got Covid this year? It’s just that I don’t see anyone wearing a mask
@Derek Poutch: my oldest got covid about 3 months ago ended up in hospital….there was 600 cases reported that week…..its obviously still around
It’s ok though, the Blackrock clinic will take you into their new expanded hospital, after all, you’ve paid for it. Capitalism on craic.
Strike.
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